Several epidemics are currently circulating in Reunion, and consulting rooms see many patients with flu-like illnesses or gastroenteritis. This is partly due to the change of season. In the meantime, “barrier gestures” are required to avoid contamination.
Bronchitis, gastroenteritis, flu: all are currently circulating in Reunion, and this has been going on for several weeks.
Doctor Anne-Gaëlle Laiguillon Bieda, replacement doctor at SOS Médecins in Saint-Denis, observes the circulation of these pathologies on a daily basis in her consulting room. Health professionals from SOS Médecins see between 400 and 500 people passing through here per day recently.
“Already a little before the start of the school year, we saw a lot of gastroenteritis and flu syndromes“, she says. On the other hand, it is impossible to know if it is only flu, or also Covid or other viruses, without a test, notes the doctor. If in doubt, it is therefore advisable to carry out a test.
These flu syndromes are in any case accompanied by “complications of secondary infection at the pulmonary level, which require slightly heavier treatments, or even hospitalization for certain patients“, underlines Doctor Laiguillon Bieda.
According to figures from the latest epidemiological update from Public Health France, during the week of October 14 to 20, 56 people went to the emergency room for influenza-like illness, and 7 had to be hospitalized. The department's sentinel doctors noted 3.6% of consultations for acute respiratory infections.
Note that visits to emergency rooms and hospitalizations for bronchiolitis in children under 2 years old were also increasing over the same period.
Gastroenteritis also brings its share of patients. “Last week, over half a day, my first five or six patients were children, brought home from school with vomiting and diarrhea or who had spent the whole night sick and were quite dehydrated.“, says Doctor Anne-Gaëlle Laiguillon Bieda.
Cases which also end up in hospital: four children under 5 years old were hospitalized after a visit to the emergency room for acute gastroenteritis between October 14 and 20.
Paul Dumas, pharmacist in Saint-Denis, also notes “lots of bronchitis, nasopharyngitis, gastroenteritis, and in children, chickenpox“.
What attracts his attention is not so much the circulation of these pathologies, but their duration over time and their resistance to treatment. At least that's his impression. “Before, we saw fewer cases of bronchitis or infections that lasted as long“, remarks the pharmacist.
“We have the impression that viruses are more resistant, and that pathologies last longer, take longer to be treated”
Why are there so many epidemics at the moment? Doctor Laiguillon Bieda evokes a possible influence of the winter-summer transition. The pharmacist Paul Dumas points the finger “the summer that is slow to arrive“.
“With the change of season, the immune system lowers a little, we are all a little more tired and able to catch the little viruses that are lying around”
Doctor Anne-Gaëlle Laiguillon Bieda
The return to schools since Monday does not help the situation, further promoting promiscuity and the circulation of viruses.
Regardless of the virus or the pathology, the two health professionals underline it together: it is the time to bring out the “barrier gestures” inherited from the Covid crisis, but somewhat neglected since then.
“It is enough that we do not respect the “barrier gestures” so that these inter-human diseases are transmitted quickly“, warns Doctor Laiguillon Bieda.
In other words, in the event of flu symptoms, it is recommended to wash your hands and wear a mask, so as not to contaminate other people. In the event of liquid stools during gastroenteritis, it is appropriate to clean the toilets with bleach, emphasizes the doctor.
“What we advise is as soon as there is a pathology, before entering a doctor's office or a pharmacy, to put on the mask“, adds Paul Dumas.
